Sermon: Go and Live!
Scripture: Matthew 28.1-10
Preacher: Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location: First Presbyterian Church, DeLand
Date: April 16, 2017, Easter Sunday, Year A
You may listen to the message by clicking here.
Our scripture this morning is one of the most detailed accounts of Easter morning that we have. Each of the four Gospels has their own slant on the day and Matthew’s is one that invites us into the Story and sends us back out on a journey. If you are able, please stand and listen to the Gospel words for this incredible day from Matthew 28:1-10.
Matthew 28:1-10
28.1 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.9Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”[1]
Good morning my friends. He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) You can do better than that, can’t you? He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Matthew’s version of Easter morning includes all sorts lightening and earthquakes – which are all ancient writing techniques used to indicate that something supernatural is going on and as hearers of the story, we are to pause and listen.[2] The last earthquake in Matthew’s Story was upon Jesus’ death. Now there is more rumbling and quaking but this time it is the Roman guards watching at the tomb! They were shaking and their faces looked like dead men. Matthew is using irony to paint the picture that those who are alive act like they’re dead and the dead one in the tomb is alive!
This morning, I want to briefly highlight four commands used in our brief narrative that capture the Easter message: No fear; go; tell; and see.
The joy of Easter is found in the command that both the Angel and Jesus declare: No fear! The good news of Easter is that all those things that cause us fear in this world have been vanquished by the resurrection! If the worst thing that can happen in this life is to die then Easter serves as the reminder that death has been taken off the table! Easter is the day we celebrate the full-circling of God who being born a person like you and me, lived like you and me, who died like you and me but who unlike you and I has been raised to new life! The gap between heaven and earth has been bridged and that bridging of time and space by the resurrected Jesus means our lives take on new meaning this very day!
Did you notice what Jesus’ first word was to the two women? Jesus approaches them and in nuances our English Bibles do not convey, he walks up and simply says, “Hi!” It is the same greeting you and I would use to meet someone we know on the street on the way to lunch. He simply says, “Hi, Mary.” What a wonderfully down-to-earth human greeting! There is no fear conveyed in his greeting. There is no condemnation in his greeting. There is no pretense or power being lorded over the women in the greeting. He simply, calmly greets them, “Hi.”
The last word Jesus spoke while alive in Matthew was his cry from the Cross to God when he exclaimed, “Why? Why have you forsaken me, God?!” Now the “why” has been answered through the journey of death and now Jesus’ first word from the grave is a warm, very kind and unassuming, “Hi.” Jesus’ fear has been vanquished; what fears do we have that need vanquishing, beloved? Jesus invites you and me this Easter to move from the “why” of fear to bask in the gentle “hi!” from God![3]
The second command both Jesus and the angel issue is to go. We typically think Jesus and the angel immediately tell the women to go out into all the nations and declare the resurrection but that comes later in Matthew’s Story. At this point in Matthew’s Story, the command to go is aimed to simply go to the current Christian community. They are to go and tell all the ones who turned tail and ran nights ago when the arrest went down. Yes, the angel invited them to “come and see” where he lay and prove to themselves he was not there! Their proof was an empty tomb but they were not to stay there and ponder it all. They were not to stay there and marvel at the rock rolled away or make fun of the Roman soldiers who now acted like scared children instead of the fearsome power Caesar’s army. They were to go and to get on with it.
The third command was to tell! They were to go to the other members of the current faith community and tell them what they had seen. They are told to go and declare, “He is risen!” (He is risen, indeed!) to the scattered community of believers who have lost hope in a better future. They are to go and tell the other Christ-followers that the Story is not over but is still alive. They are to go to the other disciples and declare that Jesus is indeed who and what he said he was! People are reconnected to God in ways they haven’t been since before the Garden of Eden disaster. They are to go and exclaim that death is not the final word in our lives and that there is a Holy One who is above and beyond our time and place Who indeed holds the whole wide world in His hands! They are to go and tell the disciples that there is purpose in this life of ours and that purpose is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and that we are to be the gracious ambassadors of Jesus’ love to the world. They were to declare that each of us are God’s agent of change in the world and that the Christian community is called to be God’s presence where we live, work, and play.
The final command is that we are not only to go and tell but that we are to see for ourselves what the women have experienced. We can hear their story, believe or disbelieve their story, but the fact is, unless we go to Galilee and see for ourselves, the women’s announcement is nothing but an idle tale of someone else’s experience. Like Peter, James, John, Andrew and the others, we too must hit the road and go discover Jesus for our own. We can hear the stories. We can believe or disbelieve the stories; yet, unless we go and take that long walk to Galilee and go looking for the risen Christ, we will not know if the women’s tales are true or not. As biblical scholar Dale Brunner comments, “Only faith, that is to say, only a walk to Galilee, will let us see Jesus.”[4]
Let’s be honest: It’s easy to feel the Presence of the Risen Christ in church on Easter Sunday or Christmas; it’s a whole lot harder when you’re sitting in the divorce court or in a funeral home’s casket display room. It’s a lot harder walking to your car from a doctor’s visit being told you need to tests run because something looks suspicious. Yet it is only when we walk through the uneven and potholed roads of our life that we are given the chance to see and experience the power of the Risen Christ in action. We can hear others tell the Story but it is only when we begin walking and experiencing our mundane, everyday existence that we will meet the power of Christ in our own life.
I can tell you not to fear death but unless you walk to Galilee, you cannot learn to be fearless yourself.
I can tell you how in the darkest places of my depression I am able to feel the tears of God and transform my depression into a gift but unless you walk to your own Galilee and experience the tears of God for yourself, you cannot be transformed from the inside out.
I can tell you about a peace that overwhelms you in life’s hard battles but unless you walk to Galilee, you cannot accept my word for yourself, nor the angel’s or Mary’s words for that matter.
Church, do you remember how on Maundy Thursday at the Last Supper Jesus told Peter and the others that on that very night, the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered and how all of them would become deserters of him?[5] Today, Jesus is commanding the women to go and do what the men failed to do, i.e. follow him. It was the women who were the apostles to the apostles and were given the task to gather up all the scattered and lost sheep, those Christ-following disciples who went into hiding in order to reconstitute and re-birth the community of believers. Well, churches on Easter are like the first disciples going to Galilee to see Jesus for themselves. All of the scattered and missing members and guests have come home! And, it’s wonderful!
The words of the angel, “He is risen!” have brought you here one more time to experience the Christ. The invitation from Mary to us has been accepted. Now it’s up to each of us to leave this day as a reconstituted community of Christ-Followers and tell others the wonderful news, “He is risen!” (He is risen, indeed!)
Amen.
Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
724 North Woodland Blvd.
DeLand, Florida 32720
pwrisley@drew.edu
wrisley.org
© 2017 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, DeLand, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] See Matthew 27:46. Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew. A Commentary. Volume 2, The Church Book. Matthew 13-28 revised (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 786.
[3] Ibid., 795
[4] Ibid., 793.
[5] Matthew 26:31.
Ad Fontem 